Bio is the new digital

“Bio is the new digital” – Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab founder

When Nicholas Negroponte predicts the future, you listen (A 30 year history of the future). Now he says that biology is where digital was at the dawn of computers, and that synthetic biology and programmable organic materials are following the same pattern, with costs dropping and capabilities increasing even faster than Moore’s Law.

Watch this amazing 10 minute video from Joi Ito, the current director of the MIT Media Lab.

People ask me why the maker movement in the classroom is so focused on electronics, fabrication, and coding. The answer is simple — that’s what’s available now. More is on the way, and it’s happening quickly. Bio-hacking, organic sensors, and programmable bacteria will be in K-12 schools sooner than you think (and already are in some cases).

Biology or programming? Both.

When you see this, ask yourself — how long can we teach science and math as if time stopped centuries ago?

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One Reply to “Bio is the new digital”

There is no question through Making we engage with change. Rather than let technology own us, we master it. In this instance – programmable biology- the same needs are there: to understand, to fulfill the potential, and to be in control of it.